Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Spring Has Sprung

And WonderBaby...

... sings...

... the body electric.

Also, she loves New York. Too bad that Her Bad Mother is only going to Kentucky.

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I'm so sorry for being such a bad blog-citizen (blogizen?) this past week or so. What with preparations for this weekend's conference and stacks and stacks of undergraduate political philosophy papers to mark and planning some super cool surprises (secret!) and working on some super faboo projects, I've had, like, no time to visit you all. But I'll make up for it next week.

I will also, next week, fill you in on the fantasticness that no doubt was our panel on mommyblogging. (Also, I will report on whether I was able to resist tackling Joy to the floor upon our first meeting.) Remember, if you've done a post about mommyblogging and what it means to you (and/or answered the questions that I posed in this postthe other week), leave me a link so that we can consult you as an expert during our panel, and give you (linky) credit next week when we report back. Need inspiration? Check out Mad Hatter's epic series of meta-posts on mommy-blogging, or any of the prattle on BlogRhet.

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Also, I need book recommendations. I've got some fourteen plus hours of round-trip air-travel time what with stopovers (Louisville ain't no direct flight, y'all) and I can't spend all of it marking papers on Machiavelli and Hobbes. (I am, as it happens, in the Super Coolest Book Club EVER, but the books that are currently under discussion are not my bag.)

This is sooo lame - but have you read the latest in the Travelling Pants Series by Ann Brasheres? It's really really good. Actually, I'd recommend the whole series - even if it's written for teenagers.(cheesy, and juvenile, but sooo good - when I read the others on the GO Train I cried). It's definitely plane reading.Or, the Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult. It's more mature. Also very good.Enjoy your trip :)

Whew, what a daunting task, recommending books to someone who has read everything already.

I'm sure you've read this too, but in case you haven't (or maybe a fellow, lesser-read commenter hasn't - hellow fellow commenters!) how about Haven Kimmel: A Girl Named Zippy or She Got Up Off The Couch? Those are both sorta chick-lit-y, but not really, as they are both memoirs of a David Sedaris nature. Except really original and not at all depressive. I heart Haven Kimmel.

Trading on my knowledge of your Buffy fandom: Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Buffy comes up in many reviews, and one says that it, if I remember correctly, is something of a cross between Buffy and Chocolat.

In no order:Suite Française – Irene NemirovskyDeafening – Frances ItaniThe Lovely Bones – Alice SeboldPoisonwood Bible – Barbara KingsolverAtonement and Saturday – Ian McEwanFamily Matters – Rohinton MistryA Widow for One year – John IrvingA Long Way down and How to be Good – Nick HornbyDisobedience – Jane HamiltonBlindness and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis – José Saramago

I'm reading David Lodge's _Author, Author_. It's a feictionalized treatment of Henry James and his friendship with George duMaurier. I stay up way too late reading it, and the hardcover is remaindered at Ch@pters for $8.

I'll second (or by now is it fourth or fifth?) The Time Traveller's Wife (incredible) and Middlesex, and will add Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies (the second is a collection of short stories). Michael Ondaatje's Anilh's Ghost also made me think. Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner is another excellent choice. Previous commenters have recommended Paulo Coelho, but personally I've hated everything by him that I've read.

One of my all-time favorites though would have to be Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake.

Happy travels. Now that I've had kids and no longer travel for business I can only fantasize about having hours on a plane alone, to read in peace. I'll be living vicariously through you.

Well, it's a shame I'm not going. I'm a lot of fun to meet.As for books.... um, I've just been reading a lot of theological stuff recently. Should you want some of that, let me know. Otherwise, I'll abstain from recommending for the time being.

Here's another vote for What is the What by Dave Eggers. His A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genious is good, too.

I haven't heard too many people talk about Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. That book is flippin' fantastic and had me thinking for days on end after.

Something obscure but excellent is A Different Drummer by William Melvin Kelley. A hint of Faulkner, but completely different with a scene toward the beginning that is so wonderfully described I still see it in my mind, years later.

I'm with MetroDad -- I just finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics. It's a long one, but really worthwhile. The writing is amazing!

I love the topic for the session ... I've thought a lot about the significance of all of us out here in the blogosphere. I think we're changing the face feminism, regardless of what the "meany" feminists say!

I just finished Laura Kipnis' "Against Love" (2003), a self-described "polemic" on contemporary love and marriage. It's funny and thought-provoking, and although claims to be anti-love, I wanted to hug the husband all the more after I read it.

I can't wait to hear about the conference. Books, books...I just finished 1 2 3 Magic, but somehow I don't think that would be great traveling literature. I finished The Year of Magical Thinking last week and I loved it. It's a bit depressing, seeing as how it's all about death, but a good read nonetheless.

Well, if you're looking for some light, cheesy romance novel type reading (which is most of what I do lately) you can't go wrong with Luanne Rice, Nora Roberts and the like. I have to 2nd Jodi Picoult's 19 Minutes (not light, but very good) - and pretty much everything else of hers. If you haven't read any of hers, don't start with the Tenth Circle. I read a lot of Chick-Lit, but I can't see my bookshelf without my glasses on, so if you want titles, let me know and I'll send them your way. Have a good trip!

Okay, I must be bumping into the other commenters in the book aisles, cause most of the suggestions are things I've read. I'd like to add:Bel CantoThe Effects of LightThe Shipping NewsThe Robber BrideCorelli's MandolinFeast of LoveRunning with ScissorsInvisible Monsters

I JUST finished reading "Nineteen Minutes" LAST NIGHT! And this is no small feat, because I began it the night before. It was that good. What I liked about it was that it kept my mind so engaged--I was continually thinking I knew what would happen next, and sometimes I was right and sometimes not. And both conclusions were satisfactory.

My personal rec's, being a former bookseller and now a library page, which means books are as essential to me as the air I breathe:

Billie Letts "Where the Heart Is"

Lorna Landvik "Patty Jane's House of Curl"

ANYthing by Suzanne Strempek Shea, but especially "Selling the Lite of Heaven"

ANYthing by Ann Hood, especially "Something Blue" and "The Knitting Circle" (which I began reading last night)

"Bread Alone" and "The Baker's Apprentice" by Judith Ryan Hendrix (these are both about the same character)

"Untold Millions" by Laura Z. Hobson (an oldie, her last work, and well worth the search)

"Where Love Goes" by Joyce Maynard

Don't dismiss these as chick lit...there's some serious, intense moments that every woman can identify with in these.

Oh, and my ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOK since first read in 1979--the one I've given away hundreds, no exaggeration, of copies of--

Anton Myrer's "The Last Convertible." Hands down. Will always be my favorite book. I mean, I'll be buried with this one.

I might be getting in this comment too late, but I ALWAYS take the latest issue of Vanity Fair on airplanes. I read it from the back page forward so that I don't have to suffer through 65 pages of ads before I get to the good stuff.

I also just read Laura Lippman's "What the Dead Know", and it was really good.

I don't comment much but just couldn't keep it to myself any longer. You are such a great writer. And that WonderBaby is so flippin' cute, especially with the snake boa and the pink purse.

Have you read the "Outlander" series by Diana Gabaldon (first book in series is actually titled Outlander)? Your writing is very similar to hers. It's historical romance with some time traveling, but fabulously written and loaded with some good sex.

and books? i just read Mean Boy by Lynn Coady for my book club. very Maritime...weirdly like reading bits of my own history, as the protagonist is (like me) from PEI and (as i once did) doing an English undergrad at Mount A in NB. quite bizarre. if you like Milton Acorn's poetry, it's a refreshing book. if not...my other reading is all Richard Scarry and Boynton and Dr. Suess, so i'm coming up short.

hi wow wonderbaby is moving from baby sweetness to toddler cuteness.well i'd recommend anything by ISABEL ALLENDE or LAURA ESQUIVEL(ie like water for chocolate)or IN THE TIME OF THE BUTTERFLIES by JULIA ALVAREZ LAVENDULA

If you need more "stranded at sea" reading, try the non-fiction IN THE HEART OF THE SEA by Nathaniel Philbrick. It's riveting (and the story of the read ship upon which the tale of Moby Dick was based, I do believe).

I won't bother recommending any books because you've received alot of great suggestions already (plus you've left for your trip already!) but I had to tell you that WonderBaby is so cute in these pics, I want to smooch her!!!